Story Highlights

FISHERS, Ind. — Mitt Romney brought Indiana back into the Republican fold Tuesday, reclaiming a traditionally GOP state that was usurped by Democrat Barack Obama in 2008 on his way to his first term as president.

Four years ago, Obama became the first Democratic presidential candidate to carry Indiana since Lyndon Johnson in 1964. But the presidential campaigns bypassed Indiana this year in favor of battleground states such as Ohio.

The gamble paid off for Romney, who handily won the state as voters expressed their disenchantment with Obama's handling of the stumbling economy.

For some who voted for the change Obama promised in 2008, it was time for change again.

John Vixon, 77, a retired Indianapolis resident, said he has voted as a Democrat since the 1950s but voted Republican for the first time in his life Tuesday. In fact, he voted a straight Republican ticket.

"I'm a Democrat, but I got tired of all the Democrats," he said. "I know they've got to do something about health care and Social Security and Medicare, but I don't want the government to take over my way of life."

"I feel like he's got the background and the acumen to be able to help us reverse course quickly," Reece said. "I'm hopeful the next four years will truly see the change we talked about and have needed for so long."

Mourdock vs. Donnelly

Republican Richard Mourdock and Democrat Joe Donnelly battled to the wire Tuesday night for Indiana's open Senate seat in a race that stood as a critical test of the Tea Party's influence in conservative Indiana.

Donnelly thwarted the Tea Party's hopes in Indiana by winning the Senate seat held for 36 years by Republican U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar, whom Mourdock defeated in a primary. The victory by Donnelly over Mourdock, who was the state treasurer, caps a tumultuous year for an Indiana seat that was such a safe bet for the GOP that Democrats didn't field a candidate in 2006.

Donnelly found his opening after Mourdock defeated Lugar in May's Republican primary. But he didn't break away until a firestorm erupted over Mourdock's contention during an Oct. 23 debate that a pregnancy resulting from rape is "something God intended."

Outside groups spent millions on the race as Democrats painted Mourdock as an uncompromising Tea Partyer and Republicans blasted Donnelly for supporting President Obama's federal health care law and other legislation.

Mourdock entered the general election with momentum from his primary win over Lugar, emboldening Tea Party activists hoping to land one of their biggest prizes of the campaign cycle. But Donnelly, a moderate Democrat who had held his own in deeply red Indiana as he courted "Lugar Republicans" leery of Mourdock's views, got an unexpected bounce after Mourdock shared his views on abortion during a televised debate Oct. 23.

The race helped Democrats retain control of the Senate, where Republicans were hoping for the the three or four seats needed to claim control. Instead, it became a coup for Indiana Democrats, who had been waiting decades for a shot at the seat Lugar first won in 1976.

Even a year ago, Lugar seemed a safe bet to win a seventh term, despite widespread conservative anger with the veteran statesman's votes on contentious legislation and for backing President Barack Obama's Supreme Court nominees. But questions about Lugar's residency combined with a flood of outside spending by groups such as the anti-tax Club for Growth carried Mourdock to a 20-point victory in the May primary.

Democrats pounced on the opportunity as Mourdock made a series of quick missteps that alarmed more moderate Republicans. In a series of interviews the day after his primary victory, Mourdock said compromise should consist of Democrats bowing to Republican demands and stood by Tea Party views popular with the base of conservative voters, but not the general populace.

"To me the highlight of politics, frankly, is to inflict my opinion on someone else," he told MSNBC the day after the primary.

Democrats spent millions flooding the airwaves with those comments and other Mourdock statements in a bid to attract disillusioned Lugar supporters.

Mourdock later tried to tack back toward the middle with declarations that he could work across the aisle and warnings that Donnelly would be a rubber stamp for Obama's policies. National Republicans sent staff and Republican senators, including National Republican Senate Committee Chairman John Cornyn, to campaign for Mourdock.

Mourdock set off a frantic scramble for damage control after the Oct. 23 debate in which he explained his opposition to abortion except in cases in which the mother's life is in jeopardy, "even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape." Republicans, including presidential nominee Mitt Romney, initially distanced themselves from Mourdock but later walked their criticism back, with many saying they didn't agree with his statement but supported Mourdock's candidacy.

Democrats, who worked to paint Mourdock as an uncompromising Tea Partyer and define Donnelly as a moderate Democrat, responded by spending $1.1 million on an ad saying even Romney and Indiana U.S. representative Mike Pence, who won the gubernatorial race, "believe Mourdock goes too far." The anti-tax Club for Growth, a strong proponent of the Republican in his primary win over Lugar, responded with an ad buy of its own, raising its state spending to more than $3.5 million.

Despite the Mourdock campaign's claims that his comments would not matter with the electorate, which they said were more concerned with federal spending the health care overhaul, voters said it still weighed on their minds in the voting booth.

Kaye Young, 78, of Indianapolis, voted for Lugar in the primary and said she thought it was "a shame they kicked him out."

She said Mourdock "irritated the tar out of me" with his comment on rape. But she still voted for him.

"I don't want a Democrat in there," she said. "I'm against Obama and Obamacare. I don't think Obama has done a good job."

The Senate battle was the most expensive the state ever has seen, topping $25 million spent on air by outside groups and the campaigns.

However, Republicans did make gains in Indiana's U.S. House delegation and the General Assembly, but several Statehouse races were too close to call Tuesday, and it was unclear whether the GOP would have a supermajority in the House.

In another Democratic upset, Glenda Ritz beat Republican state school Superintendent Tony Bennett, whom teachers had opposed because of sweeping changes he has pushed in the state's schools.

Long lines and voting delays

Voting was heavy across the state, but Valerie Kroeger, a spokeswoman for the Indiana secretary of state's office, said it went smoothly in most places. Significant voting delays were reported in heavily Republican Hamilton County just north of Indianapolis, where voters were still standing in line at some sites as the deadline for polls to close passed.

A technical glitch delayed the start of voting by about 20 minutes at some sites in the suburban county, but Hamilton County Election Administrator Kathy Richardson said waits of up to three hours in some places were more due to turnout fed by keen interest in the presidential election and a local referendum on whether Fishers should remain a town or become a city.

"I knew it would be this way," Richardson said. "We put every voting machine that we own out," she added.

For some, the wait wasn't worth it.

Part-time retail worker Charlene Shannon, 67, said the line to vote was so long at Hamilton Southeastern High School in Fishers that some people, including an elderly neighbor who is hypoglycemic and had to go get food, gave up.

"People are leaving and not voting, and that's so unfair," she said, noting that her son waited in line for five minutes to vote in Chicago. "Something is wrong here."

Mitt Romney his wife Ann are surrounded onstage by family members after Romney gave a concession speech early Wednesday at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center. (Photo: Robert Deutsch, USA TODAY)

Alexander Andresian, center, weeps as President Obama is declared the winner on election night during the Nevada State Democratic Party gathering at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas. (Photo: John Gurzinski, AP)

Bill Purcell votes at the Centerville Fire Station in Centerville, Idaho. The economy was his big concern as he cast his vote. "I think it needs to be overhauled. I think a new president would help," he says. (Photo: Katherine Jones, The Idaho Statesman via AP)

Sheresa Walker uses a flashlight as poll worker Lloyd Edwards assists before voting in a makeshift tent set up as a polling place at Scholars' Academy, PS 180, in the Rockaway neighborhood in the Queens borough of New York City. (Photo: Mario Tama ,Getty Images)

New York City firefighter Terence O'Donnell stands on sand among voting machines as he prepares to vote in a makeshift tent set up as a polling place at Scholars' Academy, PS 180, in the Rockaway neighborhood in the Queens borough of New York City. (Photo: Mario Tama, Getty Images)

Hundreds of people wait in line to vote at Green Run High School in Virginia Beach. Some people had to wait longer than four hours to cast their vote at the school. (Photo: Ross Taylor, The Virginian-Pilot via AP)

Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., left, laughs as she joins her husband John Bessler, not shown, and daughter Abigail Klobuchar Bessler to cast her vote at the Marcy School in Minneapolis. (Photo: Elizabeth Flores, The Star Tribune via AP)

Assistant election officer Belinda Strickland, left, assists a voter who had a problem with a change of address at precinct 613 Westgate at Washington Mill Elementary School In Fairfax County, Va. (Photo: J. Scott Applewhite, AP)

Evelyn Dennis prepares to hang an American flag as election workers set up voting booths at Memorial Elementary School on Nov. 6 in Little Ferry, N.J. The school is hosting all voting districts in the area because most of the town is still without power after Hurricane Sandy. (Photo: Julio Cortez, AP)

A clerk tabulates ballots at a polling station just after midnight on Nov. 6 in Dixville Notch, N.H., which bills itself as "First in the Nation" on Election Day. Each candidate received five votes, the first tie in Dixville Notch history. (Photo: Rogerio Barbosa, AFP/Getty Images)